[cypressperch]

and I am certain that being relaxed is a big part of playing great golf. We will have a professional tournament getting really tight on the last day, and an announcer invariably will say that such-and-such golfer has "been there before." Such a golfer will be better able to stay relaxed under all the pressure. With the pressure on, there is every motivation to be motivated, but there just might be so much tension that relaxation is impossible, and it may even be too much to stay focused. Somewhere in a book on the mental side of golf, I came across the concept of being "relaxed and focused." We can get overly relaxed to the point of becoming lackadaisical so that we make careless mistakes, and we can get so overly focused that tension builds which cripples our efforts. To be both relaxed and focused is to have found a happy medium.

I think you are on the right track with bringing out the importance of the subconsious. When a hypnotist performs, he always speaks slowly, very, very slowly. So slowly. So very, very slowly. Your eyes are getting heavy. So very, very heavy. Well, you get the idea. They certainly do not yell people into hypnotic trances. We cannot possibly think of everything that goes on during any golf shot while we execute it. The subconscious is in control and can handle such speeds because the subconscious does not have a vocabulary. Thoughts do not have to be in word form which takes so much time. This is why it is so important to be relaxed. It is not just so that our muscles have no tension. It is that along with allowing the subconscious to be in charge of moving the relaxed muscles.

I think the focused aspect is of primary importance in analyzing the shot, club choice, pre-shot routine, etc. Everything that goes on prior to pulling the trigger. Some develop a swing trigger such as a foward press. That is done consciously, and from that point on, the subconscious is in charge. If we truly "trust our swing," it will be. Swinging to the finish is a good idea so that the subconscious is in command throughout the whole swing.

You have brought up a related topic, the really long putt that goes in as you somehow knew it would. There is an almost spooky feeling that comes over me when this happens. It may have a scientific explanation, but it seems very, very mystical to me. I have holed out many pitch shots and chip shots in which I had a distinct feeling that I was going to even as I was addressing the ball. It all felt so right. I and the shot had become ONE. This stuff is at a higher level than just having a positive attitude, though that attitude may be a necessary key to unlocking such massive powers of mind over matter.

"Relaxed focus" has been one of the main things that I have come across in trying to improve at this game. Some of the stuff we have been discussing while on the topic of the STRANGELY GOOD ROUND might just help to get to that state of mind. Lowering expectations to something more realistic, keeping things simple, finding ways to make things novel or fresh to stay out of ruts of stale thinking, all of these and more might prove helpful.

Someone out there is saying, "Balderdash! Just do it!" To which I might add, "How true, but why include 'balderdash' at all, and just say, 'Do it!'" And some of us just cannot let something go so simply. WE HAVE GOT TO KNOW 'WHY?'

Sincerely, Cypressperch